How to shave a Lucifur

As many of you know we have a very fury cat. He's entirely too hairy and every time you pick him up while wearing black you will inevitably get "lulu'd". We've often joked about shaving the cat and I have even called Petsmart to see if they will do it and how much it is. We know some people who have a cat similar to Lucifur and when they shave their cat in the summer months the cat actually seems to enjoy the hairless freedom. Now before you think that this is just another method I use to torture the beast who I am forced to share a home with I want you to all understand that this was Chrstian's idea and it was he who bought the clippers and ultimately did most of the shaving.

Yes we shaved the wretched beast...

No he did not like it... and no he wouldn't hold still which is why he's a bit patchy.

And no he definitely doesn't enjoy his hairless freedom...

He is a cranky cat now who has made it very apparent that he is unhappy in his bald piglet state and abhors the notion that I willingly laugh at his nakedness. He looks like a Tim Burton freaky monster cat.

Anyone know how long it takes for cat hair to grow?

The Pho King

Christian has a new love in his life... Pho. For those of you who don't know, Pho is a Vietnamese noodle dish. Christian's new favorite thing is to create these noodle dishes and put his own spin on them. It's become a favorite of many of his friends and because he's gotten so good at making it they have consequently nick named him the Pho King. Pho is basically a thin rice noodle that is put into a broth with vegetables and meat. The trick is to make the broth really tasty and this is the part that Christian excels at. Our current favorite version has baby bok choy, snow peas, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, jalapenos, limes and chicken.

After a full day of climbing we all hang out and let Christian work his magic in the Kitchen.

Bret and I usually help with the chopping.

Delicious!

I Speak For The Trees

I feel like I've been in the land of a Dr. Seuss book for a week. Joshua Trees look like something out of a crazy mutated land of Truffula trees... minus the colored tufts of fur used for making whozits and whatzits of course. Regardless of the fanciful setting Joshua Tree was a beautiful place to visit. We had so much fun running around like Bar-ba-Loots in between J-Trees, Yuccas and cactus plants in the search of the perfect climb. The rock there is incredible! Its called monzogranite and its alot like Yosemite rock but its actually sticky. It seemed like once your shoes were on the wall they were not gonna come off. I was like Spiderman walking up buildings...

a dirty hippie Spiderman who smelled a little funny. but Spiderman none the less. Normally I pride myself on being the clean chic girl fashionably ready for a day of climbing at the crag but by the end of the trip I looked like a desert rat and I probably smelled like one too. The pictures from the trip took a steady decline in proportion to how fantabulously gross we looked. Hats can only hide so much my friends.

Here is an awesome boulder we found. I think it looks like the head of the villain from the Despicable Me movie.

Bar-ba-Loot Christian ready to start a climb

climbing...

During the climb we noticed a group of people below that kept waving at us and taking pictures. After we finished climbing this cute little couple in their late 60's hurried over to us with these huge smiles asking if that had really been us up on the cliff. They wanted to know all about how it worked and what the little gadget doodads hanging from my harness were. They were from Canada and had escaped to the US to avoid the crowds of the Olympics. They were very excited to inform me that they had video taped the whole thing so maybe someday I'll find this couples Canadian blog out there and be able to see Christian and I climbing in J-Tree. We meet the coolest people on our trips!

Bar-ba-Loot Julie...

Yay for hats!

The weather was really nice for most of the trip although a little cool in the mornings and evenings.

More pictures of climbing:

Here is my stud muffin right before he climbed Illusion Dweller.

Christian brought his new Camera and took some really amazing shots of the Joshua Tree Scenery. He is having way too much fun with his new Camera.

We had planned to stay till Tuesday but it turned out that a storm was brewing and it would have left us sitting in our tents and car for two days straight with no climbing. So we returned home a bit early and were able to have dinner with my Mom who was in town. She made the most delicious Fajitas and we had lots of fun spending time with family!